The Seventh Badge

Let me finish by making one thing perfectly clear to any and all who are still reading: I had the time of my life during my brief affair with Australia. 

I whined too much about the conditions.  I complained when I should have kept my mouth shut.  I focused too much on the challenges, the struggles and hardships, the harsh reality of foreign travel I faced during my ten, amazing days Down Under.  Please allow me to refocus for this last round. 

With embarrassment now, I look back at the stories I've told.  Some of them are painful. It is true: this trip was not easy.  It was an endurance test, the ultimate episode of "Survivor" in which I was the only player, or a Level IV video game come to life in which I had my hands on the joystick navigating through unfamiliar, unexpected, ever-changing hurdles and curve balls that were presented to me from the second I stepped into Sea-Tac Airport my very first day out. Within hours of departing, I already had one (literally) bloody crisis to solve.

This trip was not a walk in the park; there is no question about that.  I asked my angel-of-an-agent, Kathy, to get me to Australia and back in as short a time as possible. I just really only wanted to go there and see it real fast. We chuckle when I first told her that honestly if she could just fly me to Sydney so I could just walk around in the airport, go outside, get my soles on Australian soil and then just fly me back, I'd be OK with that. Both of us knew I wasn't actually serious.

But bless her heart, she gave me just what I asked for and warned me it was a lot to chew off.  Kathy tailor-made the perfect tour for me, at a very affordable price, and designed precisely a Tour of Oz that was exactly what I needed with my brief timeframe and unrealistic parameters.  I could spend, as many for generations have, an entire lifetime in Australia and never see all of its beauty or hear all of the glorious and inspirational history of its people.  Nonetheless, I got what I needed:  an in-depth, intense, often-thrilling, wonderful, super-satisfying, comprehensive, short-version adventure that took me from one extreme to another and then back again. 

I walked streets of two of Australia's largest, deepest, metropolitan, urban jungles and then explored the dusty, sun-baked, desert of the Outback- the wildest and most spiritual, mystical part in the Red Center.  I touched the Mother Rock of Uluru.  I ate crocodile for goodness sake!  I can genuinely say I passed Australia 101.

In short: I had a fabulous, fun, exciting, fulfilling, unbelievable, magical time. 

As vacations go, this one is near the top as all of my world expeditions go. And even though at times I was worn to the bone, nearly-crushed and fatigued beyond imagination, for nearly two weeks I didn't make my bed once, shop for groceries, wash a dish, cook a meal, drive myself anywhere, and at times I even had people carrying my luggage for me.  I was pampered, driven, served, cleaned up after, informed, guided, flown, bandaged and toured around by professionals and servants who took care of me every day I was Down Under.  They got me there, showed me all I needed to see and got me back home safely, soundly- and now with a smile on my face. 

Traveling, at least the kind I thrive on, should be about truly "getting away". And I must tell you- I got so far away from home, it seemed like another lifetime ago.  And that, my friends, is what a vacation is all about.

I bring home with me a wealth of knowledge about Australia just as I suspected I would from the beginning. I was so admittedly and woefully ignorant before.  Consider me now at a high school level of understanding.  In my heart, I will always feel the up-beat, kind, cheerful, laugh-from-your-gut, buoyant spirit of the Australian people.  I bring back so much more than just bags of painted boomerangs, t-shirts, koala bears, postcards and Aussie tourist-shop nick knacks.  What I bring back is a memory of a land I will forever hold.

I saw a land so seemingly-empty at first glance, and it yet revealed itself to be incredibly full of life.  As a matter of fact, 80% of all life forms in Australia are found nowhere else on Earth.  Australia is bursting with life; it is another world unto itself.  The Great Barrier Reef, which I did not see on this round, is the largest living organism in the world.  The flora and fauna that I observed and was blessed a few times to touch with my own hand were enchanting, exotic and beautiful beyond words. Some of the landscapes- breathtaking!  And in the expansive desert in its center, life is abundant in some of the harshest conditions and unbearable heat found on the planet.

The similarities between Cousin Australia and the Great Land of America are also present, not only in the landforms with its large cities clinging to the cool coastlines and the rugged, mountainous, flat and dry inner plains.  The original people, the dark-skinned, indigenous people there share the very same story of invasion, exploitation, relocation, land-snatching, discrimination and modern racism as we experience back in America.  Australia is also relatively newly-formed federation populated by tough-knuckled Europeans immigrants settling in a new, promising world and trying to make the best of it one acre at a time.  In many ways, Australian life mimics American life. 

But most important of all, I bring home with me the most-coveted and most-anticipated badge in my travel sash, the one that I've always dreamed of having- the mighty Seventh Badge, greater than any Cub Scout could hope to earn.  The elusive seventh continent: done!  My world travel black belt of sorts! The crown jewel.  The completion of my mission. As with other "power trips" like this, there have been times of overwhelming emotion for me.  I welled up with tears a number of times on this historical trip to Australia. 

Somewhere along the route, I did the math.  Only one in 25,000,000 people can claim that badge, and I must admit in retrospect (with a modest and measured amount of humility) that I am proud of myself for doing it.  Mostly though, I feel blessed and honored.

I cried quietly knowing that the little boy that led me to this incredible feat of setting foot on all seven continents actively, relentlessly pushed me along as I grew older and continued to tap on my shoulder for so many decades just so I wouldn't forget to actually go out and DO it.  I cried tears of relief, tears of gratitude, tears of belief and disbelief, but mostly tears of celebration that a dream once long ago dreamt had at last come true.  My crybaby sentimentality once again broke through the surface of my tough, vagabond exterior in those poignant, private moments of actualization and realization just as it did the first time I saw the magnificent Taj Mahal or the day I landed and walked on the icy shores of Antarctica, greeting by chattering penguins.  I cry when I'm happy. 

SEE?  I told you I had a good time! 

I leave with a quote I found by Anais Nin that sums up not only my boyhood dream to see the world- but also this particular expedition to Australia, and I encourage each of you out there reading to dream for your life. Don't stop until you achieve it.  It's what we are put here on Earth to do.

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”